TEDx events - devoted to spreading ideas through short presentations covering everything from business and technology to environmental and humanitarian issues - are often broadcast live internationally and watched online by millions of viewers.

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The United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) said the event in Kakuma - a sprawling camp housing 185,000 people located in northern Kenya - aimed to shine a spotlight on the plight of refugees and challenge negative perceptions and stereotypes.

“TEDx events are often in privileged settings so we thought about bringing the power of the TED stage to a refugee camp,” UNHCR’s Melissa Fleming told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“We wanted refugee speakers to use this platform to tell the world not just what they have gone through, but also show that they too have amazing things to offer.”

There are at least 22 million refugees around the world, says the UNHCR, mostly fleeing conflict, persecution or rights abuses in their countries. About 90 percent are being hosted in developing countries including Kenya in camps such as Kakuma.

From a stage set up in a white tent in a school playground in Kakuma camp in Turkana county, the refugee speakers spoke of how war had forced them to leave their homes in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Somalia.

They discussed their struggles to restart their lives as refugees, their battles to fight cultural practices such as early marriage and female genital mutilation, and their desire to return and rebuild their homeland.